In long past times there lived a householder in a certain hill-village.
His shepherd went afield to tend his flocks. As the shepherd returned
to the village at sunset from tending them, an old ewe which lagged
somewhat behind was seized by a wolf.
“Aunt, aunt,” said the wolf, “is it well with you? Aunt, aunt, do you
seem to find yourself comfortable all alone in the forest?”
Moreover the wolf said, “Do you think, O sheep, whom I have addressed
by the name of aunt, that you will escape after having pinched my tail,
and also plucked hairs out of my tail?”
The sheep replied, “How could I pinch your tail, seeing that it is
behind you, and I have been going in front of you?”
But the wolf said, “Which way then did you come, seeing that my tail
spreads all over the four parts of the world, together with the ocean
and the hill-villages?”
The sheep rejoined: “As I had heard beforehand from my kinsmen that
your tail, O best one, spreads everywhere, I came through the air.”
The wolf replied, “O mother, if you came through the air, you must have
scared away the herd of gazelles which I meant to feed upon.”
Having thus spoken, the malefactor made a spring, tore off the sheep’s
head, and having killed the sheep, devoured its flesh.